Work In Progress #2

A couple of weeks ago we did another work in progress, and invited people to come and give us feedback on our work so far.
This proved very beneficial to us, as we were given constructive criticism with regards to improving the piece. For example, some audience members felt that the piece needed configuring better, in the sense that we needed to re-consider where the audience were.  We experimented with placing them in different boxes that were marked out with tape on the floor. This was done in an attempt to portray our statistic pertaining to immigrants.

However having considered this, we decided that was not very practical. Therefore we reconvened in an attempt to overcome small issues such as these. We planned another work in progress to demonstrate the changes we made. Please see the video of this below.

We decided to experiment by giving one individual to complete throughout the process, as well as drinking the water.
However having done this we have now decided that we feel it is best if we all complete all of the tasks, providing a sense of unity and reinforcing the fact that these statistics apply to everyone, taking place in a thirty minute time span.

Untitled from Charlotte Haythorne on Vimeo.

Having trialled doing one task at a time, we have decided that it negates the concept that these actions apply to everyone.

Some of the statistics that I have found which could be used for our performance.

Below are some of the statistics and ideas on how we can present them to an audience. These range from global statistics to Lincoln University. All of these ideas could be performed to an audience or recorded and used as part of a video that could be projected in Studio 2.

Degree Idea

Action: placing pennies into a pot.

Every thirty minutes a student at Lincoln University spends 70p on their degree.

£9000 / 9 (months at university) / 4 (to make it per week) / 7 (per day) / 24 (hours) / 2 (half hour) =70p

Pizza Idea

Action: eating 18 slices of pizza.

18 people die every half an hour of obesity related illnesses.

Rainforest Idea.

Action: snapping 1800 cocktail sticks.

Every second an area the size of 2 American football pitches are destroyed in the Amazon rainforest

Dissertation Idea.

Action: writing a description of a dissertation.

88 students in our year x 10000 words = 880,000/ 6 (months to complete the dissertation) / 4 (weeks) / 7 (days) / 24 (hours) / 2 (half an hour) = 109 words

Dance Moves Idea.

Action: Shuffling.

Everytime we hear the party rock anthem we all shuffle.

Downloads (UK) for party rock anthem by LMFAO between the day it was released and our performance date is 1.000.000 (rounded down) which is:

1000000/ 372 (days) / 24 (hours) / 2 (half hour) = 56.0 downloads.

Tower Bar Beer Challenge.

Action: Drinking Beer.

The tower bar has sold since September 2011 over 27.000 pints of Carlsberg which equals to 3 pints of beer every half an hour so in our piece 3 pints of Carlsberg will be drunk either individually or collaboratively.

“Hidden Statistic”?

We decided to hold a fifteen minute work-in-progress of our performance on the 19th April, in order to gage how an audience would respond to its different elements. Primarily we were looking for feedback on:

  • the layout and configuration of the space.
  • the way we should ‘reveal’ the statistics if, in fact, we do reveal them.
  • who they believed we were in relation to them, the piece and each other.

I felt that the work-in-progress was extremely useful in helping us develop the piece. Without the audience’s feedback, I fear that our final piece would not have been challenged and stretched to its full potential.

My biggest concern about our piece that came from the feedback is the use of technology in the piece.  We were  alerted to the fact that our piece is not truly a piece of ‘intermedia’ because the live performance could stand alone from the technology we used and would still make sense. In order to improve and validate our piece as ‘intermedia’ we have to ensure that our use of technology is integral to it. One of the suggestions we were given regarding this eas to magnify some of the more detailed tasks we undertake, such as snapping the cocktail sticks, by filming them and projected them live onto a large screen.

Expanding from this idea we came up with the notion of the ‘Hidden Statistic’. One of the tasks takes place behind a large screen, hidden from the audience. The live video image of it is projected onto the front of the screen so that the audience can see it. Perhaps this could be taboo statistic, one that is often kept quiet by Governments or glazed over.

Fellow group members: Any ideas on what this hidden statistic could be??

‘Grand Reveal’

After two presentations of our work in progress, we have been left asking how we should reveal the statistics to the audience.
The way it stands at the moment, we can either  reveal the premise of the piece during the event itself, (possibly through envelopes- containing the statistics which would be read out by audience members)

Or we could wait until the end, and have it as a ‘grand reveal’. I personally feel that this seems to have the largest impact upon the viewers, in the sense that what we are doing seems very monotonous and if being perfectly honest, random. This is until we reveal that the implications of the actions we have just been doing, and the meaning behind them. In both of our presentations this has caused a sense of shock from some of the viewers, almost as though what they have seen clicks into place, and they can begin to comprehend what they have just witnessed.

Another option was  to not give away anything at all. Let the audience leave questioning what they have just seen, and come to their own conclusions as to what it meant. One audience member seconded this, and questioned why we need to have a reveal. This was extremely interesting and gave us lots to think about- Particularly, what is our agenda for this piece. Is there even an agenda?

Audience feedback was very useful to us yesterday, for example, one of our facts regards how many words on average a person will speak during one day (Please see Kirsty’s blog post) One audience member suggested that we use this statistic to reveal the other facts, and the overall concept of the piece, but perhaps in a dijointed way so that it is not spoon fed, and does not seem preachy.

Speaking of preachy, this is not the aim for the piece. We are not doing it to make people feel bad or guilty about how many children die from drinking contaminated water for instance; but simply to provide a visual representation of statistics in the hope that they become more comprehensible.

Ultimately the question is: To reveal what is happening within the piece itself, or wait until the end?

Sound Track.

We have set ourselves that challenge of doing this performance without any vocal communication between us. Also, we have given ourselves so many tasks to do simultaneously that it would be difficult for us to keep track of all of the different timings. To combat this problem, I have been undertaking the task of creating a soundtrack which plays different noises to signal the different tasks to be performed. The  track I have attached to this post is the one that we will using in the 15 minute work-in-progress that we are performing on the 19/04/12 in Studio 2. We will listen the sound track through a few times first to get into the rhythm of it and become familiar with the sounds. Following that we will throw ourselves into the full 15 minute piece, as I believe there is no better way to develop this piece than to do it.

The sounds featured in this soundtrack are as follows:

  • Beep – One performer drinks cup of water.
  • Two beeps -One performer drinks a cup of water and one performer blows up a balloon.
  • Three notes played on an organ – One performer ties a knot in a piece of ribbon.
  • Sound of ripping cloth – One performer cuts the ribbon.

For the current sound track I chose noises that are relevant to task that they prompt. This way it makes it easier for the performers to recognise the sounds and what task they have to do. This is all subject to change, depending on the feedback that we get from today’s work in progress.

The track can be heard here: 15 minute WIP

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